Lion in the Grass I

Laurent Baheux's most beautiful artistic encounter occurred with lions. Fascinated by their imposing allure and serenity, the artist has succeeded in revealing their power and elegance through photography. Unlike the hostility and fear that the appearance of these felines often provokes, to Baheux, they only bring joy and a feeling of peace. At a reasonable distance, the lions allow him to approach and photograph them. Captured in an isolated way within their natural environment, they even appear to be posing in these shots.Shot frontally and in close up, Laurent Baheux's portraits in black and white are different from the norms of animal photography as they are more reminiscent of the grand tradition of photographic portraiture. The artist deliberately highlights the lions' character traits, as well as the intensity of their gazes and the majesty of their postures, magnified by a surprising play of light and shade.

Laurent Baheux was attracted to journalism and editing at first, rapidly discovering a passion for wildlife photography. He has always been fascinated by Africa. From 2002, during a visit to Tanzania, he began personal work on the wild fauna. From then on, he chose black and white, with its play of shadows, to immortalise rare and ephemeral natural scenes, constantly seeking to sublimate the animals, to capture the magnificence of their attitudes and the emotion of their gaze. His artistic career in black and white reached a turning point when he was nominated for the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2007 in the ?Creative Vision of Nature? category. Through a stylised aesthetic approach that stands out from traditional photography, Laurent Baheux magnifies the nature and wildlife he encounters, whether it be tigers, lions, giraffes, elephants, or migrating birds.